How to avoid the Christmas binge

The final week of December can be a dieter's disaster. We all overindulge a little at Christmas, and why shouldn't we? It's all part and parcel of the festive spirit!

When you're constantly being plied with treats, it's hard to resist the odd mince pie here and a few choccies there...but you don't really need a third helping of chocolate log. And to make matters worse, many of us wash the calories down with copious amounts of booze (Ed: no names mentioned).

The bottom line: by all means indulge a little, but if you still want to fit into your jeans come January, you need to pay attention to what you're eating - especially nibbles! It's normal to put a couple of pounds on (2-4) over Christmas; a little gain is inevitable, and you'll soon work it off with saintly New Year's resolutions! But gaining 10 pounds over the festive season is bad news: it makes us miserable, and makes the excess pounds extremely hard to shift.